It is now expected that international cuts for movie trailers to contain footage that the U.S. versions don’t. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens had yet to be released, the international versions of its trailers and teasers became coveted by fans, giving them their first glimpses of locales, characters, and action scenes not seen in elsewhere. That tradition continues with the new Thor: Ragnarok Japanese trailer, which recently made its way onto the internet.
ソーが、ハルクやロキたちと「#アベンジャーズ」を結成⁉️
『#マイティソー バトルロイヤル』＜日本版本予告＞が解禁⚡️
さらに！カンバーバッチ演じる「#ドクターストレンジ」の出演シーンも【世界初】解禁！ https://t.co/GQInsTux6U pic.twitter.com/q3in15zPe0
— マーベル・スタジオ［公式］ (@MarvelStudios_J) August 16, 2017
The extra footage shows up right in the opening seconds of the trailer, with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) being given a dire warning by Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Their partnership was first teased in the post-credits scene for Dr. Strange, where Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) come seeking Dr. Strange’s assistance in finding their missing father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Odin’s absence is the precipitating event that enables the villain of Thor: Ragnarok, the goddess Hela (Cate Blanchett), to overthrow Thor’s home, the city of Asgard.
Aside from the brief interaction between Thor and Strange, the footage in the Japanese trailer is largely taken from the previously released U.S. version. We get glimpses of Hela destroying Asgard, as well as plenty of shots of Thor and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) teaming up, which according to Ruffalo will be a major aspect of the film’s plot. Other characters like Loki, Heimdall (Idris Elba), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Jeff Goldblum’s eccentric Grandmaster also show up.
It is worth noting that the jovial tone of the original U.S. trailer is intact in the Japanese version, a good indication that Thor: Ragnarok will ultimately share this lighter attitude. It also seems to gel with the direction Marvel Studios is heading within the broader Marvel cinematic universe’s “phase three.” The bright, colorful world established in Guardians of the Galaxy is bleeding into other series like Thor and next year’s Black Panther with sci-fi themes and practical effects prominently featured.
It will be interesting to see how much of that spirit is maintained by the time Avengers: Infinity War comes along. The death-obsessed villain, Thanos, is next up to bat against the Avengers and their allies. In the comics, Thanos was able to use the Infinity Gauntlet — a powerful artifact made with the six Infinity Gems — to literally destroy the universe in hopes of courting his love interest, the avatar of Death herself.
That ultimate showdown with Thanos is still a way off. Thor, however, will have plenty to contend with in the meantime when Thor: Ragnarok hit theaters on November 3.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?